You like strong or soft?

Day One in Thailand is coming to a close.  I’ve already seen half of my colleagues naked, eaten my own weight in white rice, and made some new friends.  I am here with a group of Educators from Montana State who are hoping to set up a study abroad program for undergraduate education majors here in Naikon Sawan.  Our group consists of 3 faculty members, 1 Doctoral student, 2 graduate students, and an undergraduate music technology major.  Why they’ve asked a Sustainable Food Systems graduate (that’s me) to come along is still a mystery, but nonetheless I am happy to be in “the land of smiles.”

After 18 hours on 3 different airplanes, we arrived in Bangkok a bit after midnight.  No visa needed here.  In fact, forget to fill out the second sheet of your entry form?  No problem, head on in!    We hopped into a van with our driver named Tuk tuk and started the 4 hour journey north to Naikon Sawan.  We all crashed hard and met up this morning, using the “point and smile” menu technique to order our breakfast.  (Most of the menu was in Thai but included some stunning photos.) Some fared better than others. I was jealous I didn’t get the French fries with my fried rice and eggs.  Maybe tomorrow.

The head of this trip has been working with educators in Thailand for over 7 years.  Not surprisingly, he knows the good stuff. Like where to buy 3 kilos of delicious lychee fruit and the pleasures of Thai massage.  A sassy Thai woman named Kitty scheduled our group massages for the afternoon.  We arrived at the hotel and headed upstairs to the “spa”. Much to my surprise, we were rounded into a single room, which housed 8 different Thai massage mattresses.   The 7 of us were handed Thai style fishermen pants and a loose fitting button up shirt.  We looked around in confusion as to where we were meant to change.  The staff took this confusion as ignorance and began to show us how to wear the garments.  Sorry ladies, not the problem. 

The men left the room and in spite of the numerous mirrors overhead and being surrounded by strangers, I began to strip down.    A colleague Christine commented that without her advanced skills in sleeping bag changing, her quick and discreet change would not have been possible.  A few awkward minutes later, we began to relax.   The Thai women giving us the massages, however, enjoyed the horrendous Thai pop music being played on the flat screen in the corner and some of them loved to giggle.  They giggled a lot.  They giggled when we winced in pain and at Susan’s hairy legs.   They giggled at my tattoos and they giggled when I didn’t understand which way they wanted me to roll over. It sort of felt like an 8 year old girl’s slumber party.  Comfy clothes and lots of giggles.  All that was missing was a bowl of popcorn and a VHS cassette tape of The Little Mermaid.  Would I have guessed that seeing my professor’s middle aged bellies would happen on Day 1?  Don’t get my wrong, I loved it (the massage).  So relaxing.  And, it was an authentic Thai experience.  I think the end of the massage had 2 different paths the men could have chosen.  Luckily, we changed back into our "American" clothes and headed back into the crazy heat.

We are now in northern part of the country in a city called Chaing Mai.  More to come soon on riding elephants and street food.